MCALLEN, Texas – Border patrol agents have arrested three U.S. citizens who refused to answer immigration questions at a checkpoint 29 miles north of the border with Mexico. Two of the men recorded the verbal confrontation with their cell phones.
Earlier this week, Douglas Eugene McDaniel, Keith Introligator and his brother Joshua Introligator all went before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker during separate hearings where he formally charged them with impeding the duties of a federal officer and set their bonds. On Monday Hacker set bond for McDaniel at $75,000 and on Tuesday he set bond for the Introligator brothers at $30,000 each.
Keith and his brother Joshua drove their pickup truck to an immigration inspection station on I-35 about 29 miles north of the Laredo border on Sunday shortly after 11:15 a.m.; the brothers had their cell phones out and were recording as they pulled up to the inspection station where a U.S. Border Patrol agent asked them to lower their window, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas show.
In recent months activists have taken to YouTube and other social media websites to challenge the legality of border patrol checkpoints north of the border with Mexico where those who drive through are asked about their citizenship and may be asked to show identification.
Keith, who was the driver, lowered his window about four inches and when the agent asked about his citizenship he replied, “I’m not going to answer that.” Joshua also refused to answer the questions as he too recorded the encounter. The agents noted in their documents that the two brothers were smiling and laughing during the verbal confrontation.
The agent told the brothers to move their truck to a secondary inspection but they refused. The agent then called for a supervisor to help who told the Introligator brothers that they had legal authority to enforce immigration laws. The two agents asked the men to move their truck but Keith turned it off and refused to answer more questions about his citizenship. That is when the agents arrested the two men.
During the arrest, Keith told the agents that he had a Texas concealed handgun license and had handgun in his waistband. The agents ended up finding a .45 caliber Taurus pistol of unknown model, a 9mm Springfield XD pistol, and three Ak-47 magazines but no rifle. It remains unclear if the second handgun and the rifle magazines were in the vehicle or on Keith’s person.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested McDaniel -from Helotes Texas- on Friday around 9:40 p.m. when he pulled up to the same immigration inspection station on I-35. When asked by an agent about his citizenship, he replied “white”, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas show.
When the agent asked again if he was a U.S. citizen, McDaniel replied “I am not going to answer that question because I know my Constitutional Rights”; the agent told him that he had legal authority to enforce immigration law and then asked the Helotes man to move his truck to a secondary inspection area which he also refused, court records show.
The agent called for a supervisor and the two asked McDaniel to move his truck which he again refused. During the verbal confrontation McDaniel asked the agents to call the local police because the border patrol agents were not peace officers and didn’t have the authority to arrest him or question him. The agents ended up arresting him and turning him over to prosecutors on the charge of impeding their duties. Court record don’t mention if McDaniel had a video camera or not.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter @ildefonsoortiz.
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